Saturday, November 28, 2015

Like any good music snob, I’m hesitant to let myself enjoy something that
sounds too poppy. I’ve had my fair share of guilty pleasure moments when I hear
a snippet of top-40 ear candy in public, but they have always felt more guilty
than pleasurable. I would never admit that I secretly enjoy it when my dorky
college buddy puts “Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift on at his
backyard barbecue. Like ever. But all of that changed this month when one of my
favorite music snob approved musicians, Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, put out an
undeniably poppy album called “Art Angels.”

If you listen to “Visions,” Boucher’s 2012 breakout album, and “Art Angels”
back to back, her transition into mainstream pop contender sounds seamless; it
wasn’t. Boucher’s first flirtation with mainstream pop came when she wrote
“Go,” which was intended to be a single for Rihanna. “Go” ended up in pop
purgatory after being dismissed by Rihanna’s camp for not being poppy enough
and condemned by Grimes fans for being too poppy. Wounded, Boucher decided to
scrap the entire album she was working on, but not before sharing a demo called
“Realiti.” It was perhaps the catchiest song she had ever released, and fans
loved it. The same Internet trolls who bullied Boucher into tossing out an
entire album claimed that “Realiti” was the best Grimes song to date.

Which
brings us to “Art Angels,” an album that flaunts its pop sensibilities with a
pride that’s contagious in its listeners. Even me. The beauty of the album is
that it’s accessible without sacrificing any of Boucher’s experimental
leanings. One “Art Angels” standout is the bubbly “Butterfly,” which brings to
mind Mariah Carey’s album of the same name. Another is “Scream,” which features
Taiwanese rap verses from Aristophanes and, you guessed it, lots of screaming.
The album is at its best when its artistic and angelic sides are working in
tandem. An example is “Kill v. Maim,” where the cheerleader chant of a chorus simultaneously
satirizes gender norms and makes you want to dance. It remains to be seen
whether “Art Angels” will actually earn Grimes success among the masses, but on
a personal level, it has helped me come to grips with something I’ve been
denying my entire life. My name is Ryan Lowell and I’m a pop music fan.

It
takes almost two full hours to get there, but when we reach the location for
which Bridge of Spies is named, it’s
well worth the wait. Cinematic master Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in
this Cold War tale, one of espionage, redemption, and good faith in
humanity.Hanks stars as James Donovan,
an attorney—later becoming a lesser-known figure in America’s history—who is
tasked with representing a captured Soviet spy when no one else in his firm
will step up to the challenge. Donovan believes that in America, everyone
should get a fair shake.

Actor
Mark Ryalance, known well in the world of stage acting but not so familiar on
screen, portrays Soviet spy Rudolf Able. His Rudolf Able enables us to
sympathize with the man and his dilemma, and, even more importantly, he helps
to guide the audience into James Donovan’s shoes.

We
understand that Able worked for the enemy, but it’s impossible to ignore the
fact that he was also human. Audience members who know a bit about the Cold War
might recall American pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down while running
surveillance during a flight through Soviet Union airspace. Powers was unable
to initiate the self-destruct mechanism on his plane and ended up as a prisoner
of war. While James Donovan and Rudolf Able’s relationship create a bulk of the
Bridge of Spies story, Gary Powers
still plays a pivotal role in the course of action; upon imprisonment, Powers
becomes a bargaining chip between the United States and the Soviet Union.

With
James Donovan’s sharp legal skills, and armed with a full heart, the talks
between countries begin and the audience is thrust into a conflict with
multiple lives on the line. Bridge of
Spies is a film that manages to keep audiences in its grip without running
along at a breakneck pace.

I
hadn’t realized it until the closing credits rolled, but a hallmark of a good
film (at least one based on history) is enticing your audience to learn more
about the subject matter after said film is over. I have no shame in saying that
I ordered not one but two books about The Cold War as soon as I arrived home
from the theater. As someone of a young(-er, -ish) generation, I was never
taught much, nor heard much, about the Cold War.

Bridge of Spies succeeds most
in providing both entertainment and education to someone in my shoes, while
also appealing to an older crowd who is more familiar with this moment in our
past.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

It’s that time of year again, Christmas
movie time. The first to hit theaters is Love the Coopers. Watch the trailers
and what you see is a funny group of amazing actors and actresses. You
instantly want to see the movie just based on its cast. How can you go wrong
with Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Marissa Tomei, June Squibb, Ed
Helms, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Anthony Mackie, Alex Borstein with Steve
Martin as the narrator?

Well as good as the cast is this will
not be the top Christmas movie of 2015. The cast does an amazing job, but lacks
a unique plot or story to follow. I tip my hat to Diane Keaton and John Goodman
as they really carried this movie. Whenever the story veered off course they
brought it right back in. Unfortunately there was not enough plot to hold it
together as a must see.

The movie begins with Keaton and
Goodman, on the edge of divorce trying one last time to bring their family
together. They have been married for decades and Goodman just wants to fulfill
his dream of going on vacation to Africa while Keaton wants to stay close to
her grown up children.

While Keaton and Goodman plan for the
arrival of their children for Christmas the narrator takes us through the lives
of each of their children as well as Keaton’s dysfunctional sister who spends
most of the movie in a cop car.

This movie spends a lot of time in
little mini dramas that all add up to the entire family coming together for
Christmas and finding out that their worst nightmares are now their best
memories.

This is a movie for anyone who has that
dysfunctional family and can relate to holidays being their worst nightmare. If
you are a Goodman or Keaton fan this is a must see but don’t expect King Ralph
or Baby Boom.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Spectre has all the hallmarks of a Bond film: Ridiculous
stunts, maniacal villains, and snarky secret agents. The film opens in Mexico
City, where James Bond (Daniel Craig) finds the first clue that will lead him
to an organization known as SPECTRE. Meanwhile, a threat looms inside MI6 with
the creation of a new intelligence program, which would officially eliminate
the need for all ‘00’ agents, including Bond himself.

The director of Skyfall, Sam Mendes, comes back for this
new installment of the franchise. Many of the same cast members have returned as
well, including Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Ralph Fiennes, who made the
most of their relatively small roles. One of the things I never tired of as the
sharp contrast between Q (Ben Whishaw) and James Bond. Sometimes Bond’s cocky
attitude can be overpowering, so Whishaw’s geeky character really balances out
Craig’s suave persona.

Among the new faces of Spectre were Christoph Waltz, Léa
Seydoux, and Andrew Scott, all of which were great additions to the cast.
Christoph Waltz was especially fun to watch, playing the classic villain,
always scheming and making elaborate metaphors under a shroud of shadows. On
anyone else, the act might have seemed melodramatic and outdated, but Waltz was
sinister and soft-spoken enough for it to work. That being said, Spectre
squandered an incredible cast member by giving Waltz hardly any screen time.
The entire movie seemed to be leading up to his character’s reveal, so I felt
pretty gypped at how little time was actually allotted for him.

As far as spies go, I’m more of a Jason Bourne girl, so I
didn’t go into Spectre with extensive knowledge on the 007 series. I could
still follow along just fine, but the film does harken back to a few prior
installments of the Bond series, namely Skyfall and Casino Royale. I’d definitely
advise viewers to watch the previous three Daniel Craig adaptations, if only
because certain references within Spectre lose their impact without such
background knowledge. It’s also hard to truly appreciate Spectre’s “ambiance”,
if you will. The film tries really hard to reproduce the atmosphere of older
Bond movies, and it does succeed in that aspect. All in all, Spectre is a great
action flick, especially for the James Bond fanatics out there.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Not far into the first act of Goosebumps, I realized that
this was a film made for an audience much younger than myself—now at 29.
While that might sound like a bad thing, it’s not at all.

The “Goosebumps”
series was created by author R.L. Stein in 1992, making it prevalent throughout
much of my grade-school career. It would make sense for the target
audience of a Goosebumps movie to be an older set, but, as someone who
worshiped those books, I’m happy to see the series gifted to a new, younger
generation.

Director Rob Letterman turns the average book adaptation
on its ear by casting Jack Black as R.L. Stein. The Stein in this movie is
a keeper of monsters, a writer whose own creations came to life and now
stay locked away in their original manuscripts, in Stein’s library. Through a
series of mishaps, Stein’s new neighbor (played by Dylan Minnette)
stumbles upon the manuscripts with his pal Champ (Ryan Lee) and the boys
accidentally unleash Stein’s creations upon their town. Both young
men, along with Stein’s daughter (Odeyah Rush), are forced to team up with
the author to capture the creatures before it’s too late.

It’s a fast-paced film with a few great set pieces and
monsters galore; think of it as a horror-tinged Jumanji. I found myself
delighted at all of the “Goosebumps” characters I recognized, frame after
frame. Anyone who grew up with “Goosebumps” books will be suddenly reminded of
all the wonderful characters that filled those pages and adorned their
notoriously colorful covers.

Goosebumps excels in providing a little something for
everyone, across a wide age range. There are just enough scares to keep the
little ones spooked, and it’s paired with enough humor to keep the older ones
laughing. With a runtime short of two hours, Goosebumps is a lean and
entertaining thrill ride that has enough heart and charm to earn the price
of admission. Every child should have an introduction to horror, and
Goosebumps is the safest—and most ideal—way to achieve that.